Kindal Batson a Sussex County Delaware Name

I recently was helping someone with their family tree and one of the people in the tree was Kendall Batson Adams.  Kendall (and Kendall was spelled every conceivable way you could think of) Batson Adams was born in 1845 and died in 1914.  He lived around Laurel, Delaware and had two wives and several children.  His descents are now from Delmar to Wilmington.  Now we know that people name their children after well known people such as Presidents (there must be thousand of people named George Washington), Generals ( after the civil war - countless people were named Robert Lee), local doctors, Mayors, politicians etc.  In Sussex County a number of men born about 1830 to 1850 had the first and middle name of Kendall Batson.   So who was Kendall Batson? 

Kendall Batson was born about 1771 and died in 1840.  He was the son of Thomas and Tabetha Batson.  He lived in Sussex County where he had a variety of jobs and occupancies.  He was the Sheriff of Sussex county, Judge, Keeper of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, vestryman of St. Peter's church in Lewis, he served in Capt Rodney's Company in the War of 1812 as a Sergeant and he was one of the founders of Georgetown, Delaware.  A Freemason, on June 27, 1823, a charter was granted to Franklin Lodge No.12 Georgetown Delaware by Grand Master James Derrickson, naming Caleb Layton – Worshipful Master, and there is our man Kendal Batson – being made Senior Warden. Their meeting place was the third story of the Eagle Hotel where they continued to meet until 1838.

Kendall Batson and his wife, Margret Ellis Kollock,  seem to have only produced daughters, so with no male heirs to carry on his name it is good that so many Sussex men were named after him.  It also left a number of current family tree hunters wondering why their ancester was named Kendell Batson.